The present invention relates to an apparatus for plate punching and laser cutting.
There are known machines that carry out punching and laser cutting of a plate, in slugs or in coils, comprising a punching unit and a laser cutting unit.
There are also known machines that carry out both punching and laser cutting of a plate, but only from slugs (sheet) with sizes of a limited and definite length.
The punching units of prior art machines have bulky metal structures that join the functional components of the unit.
In conventional laser cutting units, fume extraction involves the whole area on which the sheet to be processed rests and consists of a fixed table with a bearing plane to support the plate with points, known as pin table (“letto di fachiro”).
During the cutting, the laser device finds, under the plate, the points of the fixed table supporting the plate and, as the incandescent particles of the laser cut are not completely discharged, “burrs” form on the profile of the cut plate.
A further drawback of the structure with points, the pin table, supporting the plate consists of frequent replacements and frequent maintenance to clean the blades with the points, necessary due to the dross produced by the laser cut, which deposits on the points on which the plate rests and forms an irregular surface with differences in height that are detrimental to the quality of the cut.
Therefore, the bulky structures of which the punching unit and the pin table plane of the laser are composed prevent the interaction of the two processing technologies on a single machine fed by coils.
To complete the processing of a workpiece, with conventional machines, different processing operations must be carried out on different machines, resulting in logistics, storage, setup and labour costs.